Northern Irish Terrorists

There's a lot to be learned from the history of "the troubles". Just a few hard, cruel guys can adversely affect the collective consciousness as well as the safety of an entire community.

An article in the Sunday Times includes this on growing up in Ulster in the 60s:

"Though I may not have been abused as a child, the entire society in which I grew up was abused, causing me, like everyone else there, to see life through a jagged and peculiar prism. "

"From 1969 our world shrank into itself. And as the darkness closed in and the killings started, we found it harder and harder to look beyond and see ourselves for what we truly were. "

His cousin asks him to look after a suitcase:

"A week later I handed it back to him. He checked the lock. It wasn’t until months afterwards that I learnt the truth from a pal of his. The case had been packed with about £100,000 in banknotes, the results of an armed robbery. "

Criminal activity supports terrorism. It's as true today as it's ever been.

The "cartoon" riots and marches in London - what is their real purpose? Who gains? What is going on behind the scenes? When will we know the true objectives of this mayhem? I'm guessing years.

Plus - someone puts a fatwah on the Danish newspaper's editor for publishing the cartoons three months after the editor of the Egyptian newspaper does - just so we're clear about that, right?

1. What is the bounty on the Egyptian editor's life?
2. What is the bounty on France Soir's editor's life?
3. How is it paid, ie. wire transfer, cheque, notes stuffed in the boot of the car that is part of the bounty?
4. What is the reward structure for capturing the cleric who's offering the reward? If he's saying one million, why can't there be a reward for his head, say ten times the amount?

No really, I do wonder. We in the west read our papers quietly and see the big bold assertions but no one ever says - back at cha - why is that?

Has anyone ever issued one of these headline chasing fatwahs then not paid up?

We believe in freedom of speech, so let's say "every cleric who issues a fatwah will be a target, kill them and call this number for two million paid directly into your secret Swiss bank account."

Come on I'm kidding! I don't have two million knocking around to pay as a reward. How come these clerics do? They can just cut a cheque on presentation of a death certificate? I don't believe it.

Update:

There's a "minister" in India who will pay six million pounds for one beheaded cartoonist? If I was a criminal, I'd raid his home today, the guy will have some serious money in the safe in the basement, just behind that potted plant there...